Dental filling material.



No. 639,585. Patented Dec. I9, I899.

c. H. LAND.

DENTAL FILLING MATERIAL.

\ (Application filed Feb. 28, 1899.\ (Nr Modal.)

WITNESSES. I IN VEJV'TOR.

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PATENT EEro'E.

CHARLES H. LAND, OF DETROIT, MICHIGAN.

DENTAL FILLING MATERIAL.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 639,585, dated December 19, 1899.

Application filed February 23, 1899.

T0 and whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, CHARLES H. LAND, .a citizen of the United States, residing at Detroit, county of Wayne, State of Michigan, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in a Filling Material for Dental and other Purposes; and I declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, which form a part of this specification.

My invention relates to a new and useful dental filling material hereinafter described and claimed, and illustrated in the accom-. panying drawings, in which Figure 1 illustrates how my improved filling will adhere to a polished tooth-surface. Fig. 2 is a view, partly in section, showing my amalgam filling in a tooth-cavity with a finishing-face of an amalgam susceptible to a higher polish. Fig. 3 is a view of a mass of my improved filling.

My invention is more particularly designed to provide a filling of superior efficiency and utility by supplying an adhesive non-shrinkable compound and which may be easilyprepared and applied.

The object of my invention is to give an adhesive quality to various alloys that are used for filling teeth and which are now upon the market under the general form of amalgam and amalgam alloy and all of which are to be incorporated with a certain percentage of mercury, the mercury usually being added to the alloy as a hardening medium just before the application of the filling to a tooth, the plastic compound being hardened in the tooth when applied thereto without shrinking away from the walls of the tooth. In the form in which these alloys have heretofore been put upon the market and used they have all lacked proper adhesiveness to the walls of the tooth--a most important and essential and desirable quality. This want of sufficient adhesiveness to hold the mass firmlyin place in the tooth during the hard oning process has heretofore been the occasion of much dissatisfaction with this class of dental filling and has been a very serious defect. On account of this want of sufficient Serial No. 706,448. (No specimens.)

adhesion to the walls of the tooth of the ordinary amalgam heretofore used the mass when' applied to a .tooth has shrunk to itself in hardening and away from the walls of the tooth, leaving a space of more or less width between the hardened mass and the walls of the cavity, into which the secretions of the mouth may enter and by reason of which decay of the tooth is liable to continue. To overcome this defect and objection to this class of dental fillings heretofore experienced, I have made my present invention and have provided a dental filling so adhesive in its nature that the mass when applied to the tooth will thoroughly adhere to the walls of the tooth-cavity during the hardening process, thereby firmly establishing the filling in the tooth, which stability will be permanent and prevent the secretions of the mouth from getting between the filling and the walls of the tooth. To this end I employ in the formation of my im proved filling material a suitable adhesive gum, which may consist, for example, of gutta-percha or gum-chicle or an analgous gum or substance, which may be either separately or in combination combined with the prepared metal alloy of any desired substance.

\Vhile I do not limit myself to any given proportion which may be employed of the adhesive substance or substances and of the alloy, l have found that from six to ten per cent. of the adhesive substance combined with the alloy gives very satisfactory results. The adhesive substances which I have mentioned are waterproof, acidproof, and easily operated at a moderate temperature. A proper method of combining the adhesive substance with the alloy is to first reduce the alloy to an impalpable powder and then at an ordinary temperature knead the alloy and adhesive gum or substance together until the mass becomes homogeneous. The mass is then dried and is again reduced to fine powder. In this state the compound is ready to be mixed with mercury. A compound thus made is adhesive to the walls of the tooth, non-shrinkable, semiplastic in application, is salivaproof, and will set sufficiently hard to thoroughly resist the force of mastication. The mass is sufliciently plastic when mixed with mercury to be rolled into pellets or nerve-canal points or root-fillings. Such a plastic mass may be used to partially fill tooth-cavities, and then facings of an ordinary amalgam may be applied, to which facing the mass above described will firmly adhere to hold the facing in place. The plastic mass may also he readily employed to anchor gold or other faeings and for analogous purposes.

In the drawings a tooth is represented at a. My improved filling material is indicated at b.

In Fig. l the improved filling is shown applied to the external face of a polished tooth simply to show how such a mass Will adhere thereto.

In Fig. 2 a facing of ordinary amalgam is shown at c, the body of the filling being composed of my improved compound.

My improved compound in its. plastic con- CHARLES H. LAND.

\Vitnesses:

N. S. WRIGHT, MARY HIGKEY. 

